December was a busy month for the courts, with south London criminals locked up for horrific crimes including a man who strangled his estranged wife to death and a prolific burglar who robbed former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan at gunpoint.

From prolific thieves to criminal gangs and vicious killers, the police have been hard at work finding and jailing those who put the people of Croydon and the surrounding boroughs at risk.

Here is our round-up of criminals jailed in south London in December 2018, including links to read more detailed coverage of their crimes.

As always, if you have information of anyone who has committed a crime, call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

'Prolific offender' who tried to steal cashbox with hammer

"Prolific offender" Matthew Missenden

A Sydenham man was jailed for five years on December 5 after attempting to steal a cash machine in Deptford.

Matthew Missenden, 56, of Hazel Grove, approached someone delivering a cashbox outside a supermarket on Deptford High Street while armed with a hammer but fled the scene once it was revealed the cashbox was empty.

Police traced Missenden to his home address using the registration of the car he was seen escaping in on CCTV and he was convicted following a week-long trial at Woolwich Crown Court .

Detective Constable David Crewe described him as a "prolific offender who has no respect for the law or the criminal justice system".

He added: "At the time of this offence he was on licence having been released from a custodial sentence he received for similar gun-enabled offences."

Life sentence for murder of former friend over motorbike

Tyrone Farquharson was sentenced at the Old Bailey for the murder of Kelva Smith (Image: Met Police)

Tyrone Farquharson, of Archer Road, was sentenced at the Old Bailey on December 7 for murdering 20-year-old Kelva Smith on Albert Road on March 5.

Mr Smith and his cousin arranged to meet the killer at 4pm because he believed Farquharson had stolen a motorbike he had stolen in Croydon some weeks earlier. After a heated exchange, Farquharson stabbed him four times, while his accomplice then aged 15, brandished an axe.

Kelva Smith was murdered in South Norwood earlier this year (Image: Met Police)

The pair attempted to run from their attackers but were chased into Albert Road, where Kelva collapsed on the pavement. Paramedics were unable to stop his internal bleeding and he died at the scene at 5.34pm.

A number of members of the public witnessed the incident and one said they saw Farquharson laughing and joking as he walked back to his house.

Both he and his accomplice handed themselves into the Lewishman police station the next day.

Martin Cavanagh, 35, of Chatterton Road, was found guilty of murdering 31-year-old Sophie Cavanagh, who he was in a relationship with for 10 years and had two children with before the marriage broke down.

On May 20, his mother became concerned when she couldn't contact him after he asked her to look after his children and asked two friends to check on him at his house, where they found Sophie's dead body on a makeshift bed.

Sophie refused to sleep with Cavanagh

Police investigating at the scene found a children's whiteboard in the room on which Cavanagh had written a message claiming "she deserved it".

He handed himself into Bromley police station four days later after a public appeal.

Croydon man who convinced elderly to hand over bank cards and pin numbers

A Croydon man, 35, who defrauded four elderly people of more than £5,000 by persuading them to hand over their bank details on the phone was jailed for three years on December 10 at Croydon Crown Court.

Paul Debenham, of Friends Road, was found guilty of fraud by false representation, as well as stealing a car and driving without insurance or a licence.

Debenham and two other suspects phoned their victims, aged 81 to 95, pretending to be from a bank or fraud team. He convinced his victims they had been targeted by fraudsters and needed to put their bank cards and pin numbers into an envelope.

The envelopes were then collected by a courier, allegedly so they could be delivered to the bank, and Debenham used the cards to withdraw large amounts of money from cash machines.

Prolific burglar who robbed former Crystal Palace owner at gunpoint

A prolific burglar behind a gunpoint robbery "in broad daylight" and 13 other offences in south London and Kent was jailed for 13 years at Woolwich Crown Court on December 20.

Adam Yaroo, 32, of Catford Hill, admitted to a number of burglaries, thefts, driving offences and a robbery, dating back to August 2017.

This included a gunpoint robbery on March 21, when Yaroo approached 51-year-old former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan as he was sitting in his car on London Road in Croydon, pointed a gun at him and demanded his £100,000 watch.

Gang of five who stole cash boxes armed with crowbars

The crowbar thieves responsible for stealing cash boxes in south London

A gang of five who spent three years stealing cash deliveries in south London armed with crowbars were jailed for 57 years in total on December 21.

Ishmael Baptiste, Richard Roberts, Samir Smith, Mohammed Adan and Michael Ashman, all south Londoners in their late twenties, were sentenced at Croydon Crown Court for seven robberies, in which they stole cash boxes from supermarkets before fleeing in stolen cars.

The group were discovered by police after stealing a cashbox at 8.40am from Tesco Express on Croydon Road on December 22 2017. Two of the five, Adan and Ashman, were arrested after a short foot chase by police and Smith was later arrested after attempting to flee by car.